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I will have a go at answering it and I will try to unpick some of the elements. Yes, the police were recognised as being institutionally racist. There is a clear distinction, however: that does not mean to say that the people working in the police force are all racist. We know how institutions and structures can reinforce and compound discriminatory practices.

Once we have that acknowledgement, my pragmatic piece is to move on. Our focus is on improving outcomes; that is what we need to do. The police take a community-first approach and they invest in community police officers to build those relationships within the communities and to be embedded within them. I know that they do amazing work in community centres, on the street, in our schools and so on. However, it is incumbent on us all to reach out and build that mutual trust and confidence, although I understand that there will be challenges when people are operating in a deficit model.

Nick Bland mentioned our work on new Scots, and we are also doing a lot of work around hate crime. The police play a crucial role in making Scotland a safe and cohesive place. I refer again to the events of the summer, when the police were involved in extensive briefings and their response was largely well received by the communities. I think that, by and large, they struck that balance between providing a supportive presence and not being oppressive or taking a disproportionate approach. Of course, we have to remember that the police are completely independent, and what they do in that regard is up to them, in that sense.

Nick, do you want to come in briefly?

I cannot comment on anything specific, as the member will be well aware. However, I point out that there are also the regulations on health and safety in the workplace. There are lots of regulations in place.

This is certainly a role for the EHRC, which is the enforcer, as it were, with jurisdiction over this area. I will be meeting the commission very soon, possibly even next week. We have always had a close working relationship, and I am looking forward to meeting it to explore these issues of interpretation and enforcement. I am sure that those issues will come up.

I am not sure. I will bring in Nick Bland, because I need to check the technical aspect to your question.

I heard previous witnesses say that what we were proposing was nothing new, because public authorities already have a duty to make reasonable adjustments. I listened very carefully to those comments and I thought that they were interesting.

However, there are limits with the reasonable adjustments approach. Equality law sets out that reasonable adjustments are applicable only to disabled people. The existing regulations on accessible communications and publications are important, but we want to help public authorities to address multiple communication barriers, as far as that is possible within devolved powers.

Part of my thinking was that the reasonable adjustments approach is not enough because that approach concerns only one protected characteristic, whereas taking the revised approach encompasses everybody.

I recognise that evidence. That is exactly why—as I shared with the committee—Communication Inclusion People and Disability Equality Scotland are going to lead on this work. I hope that they will provide the work that a lot of local authorities are probably trying to do at their own level. This work will provide consistency, and I hope that it will be an extensive resource bank that can provide good practice and will be there for people to pick up and use. There will be a bit of an economy of scale, but it will also help with providing consistency so that, from one end of Scotland to the other, everybody gets the same service.

I have made my position on that very clear several times in the chamber. We expect everyone to be following the equality act as well as the health and safety regulations. The position is absolutely clear.

They are.

I know that we are way over time, but it might be helpful for the committee’s understanding to bring in Jennifer Singerman, who could talk about the limitations of the public sector equality duty.

Thank you for that question. You have raised a very interesting point. You and I know that, whenever debates take place, a variety of organisations circulate briefings to all MSPs. As far as I am aware, that is standard practice.

On the issue regarding the legalities, I want to make full use of my team so that we get the position absolutely right. I will bring in Cat McMeeken on that issue.

I have met BEMIS several times as a strategic partner of the Scottish Government; indeed, prior to my being in this role, the Scottish Government worked with it effectively for many years, and we will continue to do so. We really value its work.

However, I am sorry to hear that it takes that view, and I do not agree with its assessment. I think that the Scottish Government has been very clear about our obligations under the Equality Act 2010 and, of course, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. We are very clear that one size does not fit all; indeed, if we thought that it did, the approach to anti-racism for racially minoritised communities would fail to deliver.

As you have said, the racialised outcomes are not experienced uniformly, and any effective interventions that we make have to be evidence based and take specific experiences into account. In your previous session, one of the EHRC witnesses raised the issue of Gypsy and Traveller communities; we have an action plan to drive positive change and tackle inequality for those communities across Scotland. We have put our money where our mouth is, with over £15 million having been—or committed to be—spent between 2021-22 and the recent 2024-25 budget, and there are loads of local projects on cultural aspects specifically but also on accommodation in six local authority areas.

We are clear that we work to the definition of race in the Equality Act 2010. As a Government, we do not exclude or include specific minorities when we talk about communities that experience racism or are racialised.